$44 Billion: Expected Marijuana Economy by 2020

The marijuana industry continues to bloom throughout the United States, and a recent projection says that the industry could impact the economy with $44 billion in revenue by 2020, which nearly matches the current total market value of outstanding shares, or market cap, of Netflix.

The projection includes calculating the figures from sales, wholesalers and every aspect of the marijuana industry, including the taxes paid. A surprising inclusion is homes purchased due to recreational marijuana legalization in states such as Colorado and Washington where recreational marijuana is currently legal. According to Yahoo! Finance, the market figure is different from typical marijuana industry projections which focus solely on marijuana sales transactions.

Chris Walsh from Marijuana Business Daily says, “We’ve been expecting rapid growth in the marijuana industry for awhile now, and that’s exactly what’s playing out. The main drivers of the growth in recreational sales are Washington, Colorado and Oregon. And also, interestingly, even the mature medical marijuana markets are growing very quickly, like Arizona, New Mexico and states that have had medical marijuana programs for years now. And then you have new medical marijuana states like Illinois, Nevada and Massachusetts.”

The industry is expected to reach $3.5 to $4.3 billion in sales in 2016, which is up from about $3 billion in 2015. Walsh went on to provide numbers for the entire marijuana industry, including the black market. The estimated sales totals of all markets, according to Walsh, is “between $30 and $45 billion in the U.S., and that includes the black market.”

Politics has a huge hindering on the marijuana industry, and Walsh agrees somewhat, but doesn’t think politics are going to do too much damage to legalization progression. He said, “You might get an anti-cannabis president in January, but even then, it’s hard to see this going in the opposite direction. The genie’s out of the bottle, half the country has legalized medical marijuana and an increasing number of states are legalizing recreational. Anyone who tries to stand in its way is going to have a hard time.”